Family and friends of Dillon Barker, Andrew Forsythe and Rodolfo Rivera, along with dozens of priests and deacons, filled the Cathedral of the Incarnation on March 19 to witness the three men be ordained to the transitional diaconate.

Atop the new Church of the Nativity building is a large star, and when it’s lit at night, it beckons the Catholic community of Spring Hill just as the star led the three wisemen to Bethlehem for Christ’s birth.

When a woman faces an unplanned pregnancy, she is understandably anxious and confused about her future. She may not have a support system in place; she may not know who to talk to about her options. One place she may not think to turn is Catholic Charities of Tennessee.

Living in downtown Nashville, Stephanie Keller regularly noticed a woman selling newspapers outside of St. Mary’s Church, where Keller is a parishioner. The woman appeared to be dressed in second hand clothes, which made Keller thankful for people who make, and agencies that distribute, clothing donations.

The last year has been filled with fear and comfort for Dave Loos, the head basketball coach at Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, and his family. Two of Loos’ granddaughters – Olivia, a fourth grader at Immaculate Conception School in Clarksville and the daughter of Pam Loos, the preschool program director at the school, and Rhyan, the 6-year-old daughter of Loos’ son Brad, an assistant basketball coach at the University of Missouri – have been struck with life threatening illnesses.

On March 19, three seminarians from the Diocese of Nashville – Dillon Barker, Andrew Forsythe, and Rodolfo Rivera – will take a major step in their vocational journey as they are ordained transitional deacons at the Cathedral of the Incarnation in Nashville.

Painting can be a mystical experience for Rosanna Palk. “For me it’s my little heaven when I paint,” said Palk. “I may stay there for five or six hours but to me it’s only a half hour. I lose the sense of time.”

When Sister Sandra Smithson, SSSF, blew out the candles on her 90th birthday cake March 3, she was not only celebrating her birthday, but also the feast day of St. Katharine Drexel, the saint who “started a school just for me,” as she told the Smithson Craighead Academy students gathered to sing Happy Birthday to her.

As the Catholic Church in the United States undergoes huge changes in demographics, it will continue to become more like the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, which is 40 percent Hispanic and is home to more than 40 ethnic and national communities, each with their own particular ways of expressing their love of God.